4.19.2016

Because Kyushu is famous as a sightseeing spot in southern Japan, many foreign tourists suffer from this Kyushu earthquake. Japan may be safe in the peace and order, but It's not so in the disasters. Rather Japan is a "department store of the disasters". Earthquake, tsunami, heavy rain, flood, typhoon, tornado, volcanic eruption, heavy snow, blizzard... every disaster attack Japan through the year. Therefore the global safe ranking of Japan is slightly low. Can you survive if you suffer from disasters in Japan? Japan Tourism Agency thought that they must send the information of disasters to foreign tourists in real-time to make Japan a great tourism nation. Therefore they provide application "Safety tips" to send the information of disasters to by various languages in push notification. It supports English, Chinese, Korean and the downloading is free(iOS/Android).

By this application, you can know the information of the disaster attacking Japan in real-time. You can communicate using brief conversation templates even if you suffer from disasters. It will be good to learn about the appropriate action at the time of the disasters before a trip to Japan. Much caution does no harm. Please learn about disasters and enjoy trips to Japan.

Messaging application LINE started the sale of the charity stickers of the Kyushu earthquake in Japan. Users can buy these in sticker shop in the application and LINE STORE of the Web. The price is 120yen(50 LINE Coin).

Whenever big disasters happened somewhere, LINE released charity stickers. They sold charity stickers for 2013 Typhoon Haiyan in Philippine and contributed 58,773,190yen(about 540,008USD) to the Red Cross, and contributed 32,170,035 yen to the Red Cross for 2015 Nepal earthquake like it. The donation activity using LINE's stickers is common now in Japan, but in the case of 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, they did not sell charity stickers unexpectedly. Naturally, because LINE has not yet existed in March, 2011(LINE was released in June, 2011).

I write this many times, Technology and the action of people greatly change in only five years. Even if services and the tools which did not exist five years ago become the current common sense, it is not mysterious.

From April 14, big earthquakes attack the Kyushu area in Japan, they still continue and therefore the restoration activities are late. Now, Japanese many companies collect donations from their clientage.

Among them, mixi achieved remarkable result. They announced that they contributed all sales of virtual currency of their popular mobile game Monster Strike "orb" for Red Cross from AM0:00 April 16 ~ AM3:59 April 18. Then, the sales of "orb" recorded 9,806,160yen(about 90,079USD) in these three days(Actually 51 hours 59 minutes).

One orb is 120yen(about 1.1USD), when it's simple and calculated, 81,718 orbs would sell for donations. The donation activity using a virtual currency and virtual goods is not rare now. However, their speed is phenomenal.

mixi added 10 million yen(about 91,860USD) to these and contributed 19,806,160yen in total to the Red Cross.

We can donate bitcoin through Coincheck, and donations will be converted to Japanese yen and given to Peace Winds Japan (PWJ), an organization dedicated to providing emergency humanitarian assistance, disaster relief activities, and reconstruction assistance. Coincheck collected 27.6766B from 179 users now. When exchanging it to Japanese at a current rate, it's 1,300,000yen(about 12,000USD). They continue this activity until June 5.

We understand that the charity activity and revival activity in Japan changes rapidly in only five years. Please remember 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami those days, cloud funding was not common, and bitcoin did not exist in those days, furthermore, the people did not use the messaging apps! Technology and the action of people change in only five years.

4.16.2016

the Kyushu area, the southern in Japan are attacked by many big earthquakes. In particular, the damage of Kumamoto Pref is serious. They were attacked by an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 on April 14, furthermore attacked by an earthquake of magnitude 7.3 on April 16. Because of these, the important cultural property of the temple and the castle were broken, a dam collapsed, the bridges fell, landslides occurred in the mountains, and 39 inhabitants died. The scale of earthquakes are equal to Great Hanshin earthquake of 1995.

What is the most necessary for the stricken area of the disaster? ---It's money. Revival costs vast money. However, donations are accompanied with some worry. Will our money be spent properly? What kind of revival activity will our money be utilized for? Therefore, Japanese crowd funding platform Campfire carries out an interesting activity. They raise donations with the format of the "project".

They raised donations only by 500yen(about 4.5USD) plan, and raised 3 million yen from 1200 supporters in two days(It's triple the aim). A good point of crowd funding platform is that reports of activity are shown. Supporters can know that their money is spent fairly. They choose groups to entrust with donations, and they conduct rescue operations at stricken areas at once.

In addition, other Japanese crowd funding platform performs the project like them, too. For example, Ready for? prepared for various amounts of money plans and collected 4,500,000 yen from 609 people.

Kyushu earthquake had examples of new "Social Good" in Japan. Crowd funding was not yet common at the time of one of 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. However, Japanese people were used to crowd funding in five years. We can't conquer nature, but we can help each other by experience.

By the way, Japanese Red Cross raises donations until June 30 for revival from ‪Kyushu earthquake‬. Overseas friends, please support ‪Kyushu‬ area in ‪‎Japan(‬in particular Kumamoto Pref). And please scatter the information of this ‪disaster‬.

This is a toy for kids, but if you are an adult loving goldfish or tropical fish, this becomes the useful gadget for you. CCP, the subsidiary of Bandai, released an underwater recording toy “Submariner Camera” which can take pictures and videos of fish in the aquarium.

It is designed like the miniature submarine, and users can control it by infrared remote control. It is also radio control toy, and users can take pictures and videos of the favorite fish near them. What should users do if fish escape? Don't worry, this has extendable arm to sprinkle bait. If users sprinkle bait using this, the fish forget the fear to a submarine and come near it. The camera can record five minutes video(VGA: 640×480 pixels, 30fps) and take about 800 photos (Quad-VGA: 1280×960 pixels) in its built in 256MB internal memory. When you want to share videos and pictures in various places, connect a submarine to a PC using accompanying USB cable. The price is 10,778 yen(tax included).

"I'm not angry!" "The great adventure of the fluffy trio begins!", written in the Japanese official site in this way. And new Japanese Teaser video were shown, too. However, they are shorter than originals.

Nnf nnf(There is the original character only for this anime. His name is Pero)

Nnf nnf!(Handsome Nameko, Nameko-Senpai!)

Nnf nnf!(Robo-Nameko, His head is full of data!)

Nameko-Senpai said, "Nameko forest is a good place. However, something is insufficient."

"Something?"

Then, cute Love-Nameko came over.

"Oh! You are necessary for Nameko forest!!" Girls were not in Nameko forest till then.

Love-Nameko said, "Nameko forest is a very good place. However, I feel that this place is unkindness. Because, though it is very large here, there is no guidance signboard."

Nnf nnf nnf nnf nnf nnf~~~~~~~~

Nnf!!(I've got it!!)

"We become guides, and let's tell charm of Nameko forest to friends of the world!"

"Same scarves are cool!"

They formed team NUR in this way...

This is broadcasted in NHK's education program for kids "Nyanchu World", and the theme of this program is "Let's get along well with people of the world!". So, the theme of stories of Nameko anime is the same as it. In a sense Nameko forest reflects present Japan. This is also an education content for kids. Various rare Nameko comes up from now on. Various rare Nameko comes over to Nameko forest from now on. Anyway, I look forward to it.

4.07.2016

April 7 is a birthday of Gautama Buddha, the initiator of the Buddhism. This topic is just good for this day.

Japan personifies everything, and they usually become handsome men, cute boy and girl. Japanese personification movement targeted Buddhism at last. This is not April Fool. Because it was released in March 15.

This "Namuamidabutsu!(なみあみだ仏っ！)" - this title comes from one of the Nianfo. It's a term commonly seen in Pure Land Buddhism - is a browser game for smartphones offered in Japanese mobile game platform Ameba. Players meet 13 Buddhahoods, fight against worldly desires spread over the world with them, and aim at purifying the world. Anyway, a important point of this is that all Buddhahoods are handsome guys.

For example...

He is Acala, the dharmapala primarily revered in Vajrayana Buddhism, particularly in Tangmi in Japan, China and other Asia. In Japan, Acala is revered in the Shingon Buddhism, Tendai, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism and in Shugendō.

Acala in Japanese general statues.

He is Guanyin, the East Asian spiritual figure of mercy, and a bodhisattva associated with compassion as venerated by Mahayana Buddhists.

Western people think him to be a goddess. However the first place, Buddhahoods are asexual condition.

He is Bhaisajyaguru, the buddha of healing and medicine in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Commonly referred to as the "Medicine Buddha", he is described as a doctor who cures dukkha (suffering) using the medicine of his teachings.

He is Kshitigarbha, the bodhisattva primarily revered in East Asian Buddhism and usually depicted as a Buddhist monk. His name may be translated as "Earth Treasury", "Earth Store", "Earth Matrix", or "Earth Womb".

You can see his figure everywhere in Japan. He is in not only temples but also graves, sides of the way, towns, villages, mountains and forests.

He is Manjushri, the bodhisattva associated with prajñā (transcendent wisdom) in Mahayana Buddhism.

The temples dedicated to him are popular among students because he manage wisdom.

He is Vairocana, the celestial buddha who is often interpreted, in texts like the Flower Garland Sutra, as the Dharma Body of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama). In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Buddhism, Vairocana is also seen as the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of Emptiness.

The rule of the game is a simple card battle game. Profiles of original Buddhahoods are placed in cards, and we can study Buddhism through a game.

How do we get cards of new characters? Of course it is Gacha!

Illustrations of the normal cards which are not rare are chibi(The design which was deformed small)-style. Cute!

The beginning of the story, Gautama Buddha came up suddenly. Of course he is also handsome.

The bird which there is next to him is Karura. Originally he was Garuda which was one of Indian mythical Gods, but he came to Japan, and became a member of the Buddhism world. n this game, he is a mascot character. He eats too much worldly desires and suffers.

Boss enemies in this game are various worldly desires. The new stories are shown by overcoming these.

You may think this to be J-style dating sim for women, but backgrounds of original Buddhahoods are reflected for characteres and lines of 13 Buddhahoods. The motif of this is Thirteen Buddhas faith born in Japan in the Edo era.

It has not yet passed one month from released, but the sale of various goods was decided(Of course they are not Buddhist altar fittings).

Key rings...

Button badges...

Tapestries...

and more!

If this becomes popular among women, worshipers to temples may increase.